Hola

Today I leave Ecuador for the Galaps. I've had about a day and a bit here after travelling 11 hours up to Quito, Ecuador's capital, from Santiago.

I arrived the first day reasonably tired so went straight to the hotel and had a power nap. After about two hours, Jon, my travelling buddy, arrived and we chatted before I met some of the others in my tour group and went out for dinner at a traditional Ecuadorian restaruant.

Yesterday, a few of us hired two private cars to drive us out of Quito into the Ecuadorian countryside. We visited markets and other tourist stops in Otavalo before heading to Cotachochi, which is famous for leather products and then up to the lake nearby for lunch. The countryside was amazing, very mountainous and green, but the pollution was somehow still a problem. By the time we got back, we felt like we'd all been sucking on exhaust pipes.

When we got back, we joined up with the rest of our tour group and group leader as yesterday was officially Day 1 of our tour. We all headed to old town via public bus, which was an interesting experience as it was crowded and we had to squeeze on and were constantly watching our pockets. We wondered around old town for a while, seeing several catherdrals and churchs, the main square and the presidents palace. We returned from old town and went out to dinner. I retired early as a series of early starts had me pretty beat.

As for our tour group, we have:
Me + Jon (Perth + Pom)
Zoe + Alex (Perth ladies)
Bill (Gold Coast)
Gabriel (Brisbane)
Linda + Andrew (Sydney)
Sybylla (Sydney)
Margaret (Wales)
Brad + Nat (Vancouver)
Katrine (Washington DC)
Aaron (Vancouver).

Well, that's Ecuador (Quito anyway). Off to the Galapagos, can't wait.

Hope all is well back home.

Dave

Buenos dias

Yesterday, I flew 25 hours from Perth to Santiago, Chile. Arriving a little worse for wear, I grabbed a shuttle to my hostel in the district of Providencia, checked in, then went out to explore the locale a little. I ventured through some neighbouring suburbs before turning in for a quick power nap before dinner. The hostel had a bbq night and put on food and wine which was great. I met all the other guests, who came from countries such as Germany, Holland, Scotland and Ireland.

Today I had a full day in Santiago so headed up Cerro San Cristobel via the Funicular railroad system where I got my first real taste of the size of Santiago. It´s a pretty uninteresting city, clouded in smog but surrounded by the Andes, which I´m sure would make a better sight in Winter when they are snow capped. Next stop was to head downtown, where I wondered around several markets, parks and streets. Another hill climb up Cerro Santa Lucia before heading to Plaza de Armas, which is the main square in Central Santiago.

More shopping, a quick stop for beer (about $3 for a pint), and more sightseeing as I looked around downtown, passing National Congress building, Law Courts and Stock Exchange buildings. I decided to give the metro a try to come back this afternoon and was surprised at its ease, efficiency and speed.

Tonight i´m headed to a popular restaurant and bar area called Barrio Bellavista, which I checked out a little today on my way to San Cristobel. I ate right in the heart of Bellavista called Patio Bellavista where I tried a traditional Chilean drink, the Pisco Sour. I haven´t decided what was in it but it was strong. After that, I headed to one of the numerous bars where I drank Escuda beer, which comes in 1 litre bottles for about $3AUD. Escuda´s motto is "es mas cerveza" which translates to "its more beer". Love it.

That´s it for Chile. I really only used it to break up my travels over here. I leave tomorrow morning for Ecuador, which will take me most of the day to reach. Saturday marks Day 1 of my Galapagos & Inca tour, which I´m really excited about.

I´ll update when I next can!
Hasta Luego!

Dave

Howdy

Well, today, Mike and I finished our last official day of holidaying. From here on in, we are in transit home. The last 3 days we have spent in Las Vegas and Grand Canyon Area.

Day 1 saw us basically walk in and out of every major casino on the strip having a look at each, having a gamble at each ($1 each on the 1c pokie machines) and take in the general "strip" itself. The hotel and casino's here are just mind boggling, from replica eiffel towers and venice canals to giant pyramids, greek temples and mini new york's, this place just oozes entertainment to the max.

For our first night out, we headed to the MGM Grand to see David Copperfield in show. This was an awesome show with all sorts of disappearing/reappearing, incredible tricks and no doubt side of hands happening all over the show. I was actually picked out of the audience, along with 12 other people and we were made to disappear right in front of the crowd and reappear at the back of the auditorium. I know how he did this but I'm not telling. Mike tells me it looked awesome! After the show, we headed out to check out more nightlife, including a club at the MGM called Studio 54.

Day 2 saw us head out mid morning on a day long tour to the Grand Canyon. We got taken to Boulder City by bus where we boarded a small plane to fly to the Grand Canyon. On our flight there, we flew over the Hoover Dam, which is amazingly large with facts such as at the base, it's nearly as thick with concrete as the whole dam is tall! Upon arriving at the canyon, we boarded a helicopter for a ride into the Canyon, where we landed at the riverbed to take a pontoon ride down the Colorado River. After another helicopter ride out, we headed to Guano point for some lunch, photos and sightseeing before boarding the plane and flying back to Boulder City and bus back to Vegas. We were pretty tired by the end of all this and mainly hung around our hotel, Treasure Island, that night where we took in the Sirens pirate show, drank at Kahunaville and did a spot of gambling. I ended the night $40 up.

For our last day, we took a bus up to "old Las Vegas" or downtown where we checked out some of the older casinos down on Fremont Street. This area comes alive at night with an amazing roof covering a major part of Fremont Street that lights up with all sorts of patterns but we missed the night show unfortunately. Standing there in daylight, Mike and I could only imagine what it would look like. We did a spot of shopping, a little more gambling in casino's such as the Golden Nugget before heading back to the main strip for one last time. We then said goodbye to Vegas and flew to LAX, where we are overnight, before flying home to Perth, via Tokyo. 22 hours of flight, should suck.

Anyway folks, this will be my last entry for this amazing trip. Viva Las Vegas!
Dave
Over and out

G'day from the Capital City of America

After arriving back in NYC from Paris, Mike and I hopped a train down to Washington DC which took about 3 hours. We arrived in the mid to late evening and quickly grab a bite to each up near Dupont Circle, which is an area near to our hotel.

Day 1 in Washington saw us hop the train out to Arlington Cemetery where we visited the burial site of JFK, the tomb of the Unknown Solider and a few other notable memorials. After Arlington, we headed to the Pentagon but got out to find that no photos were permitted at all and there was really nothing we could do there; so we hopped back on the metro and headed for the Mall. The Mall is a long strip of parkland through the middle of DC that has the Lincoln Memorial at one end, the Capitol Building at the other and the White House somewhere toward the middle, near the Washington Monument.

Most of this visit to the Mall was taken up by our visit to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, which we wandered around for about 3 and a bit hours. Considering this is a free museum, it was really good and really interesting. After the Smithsonian, we walked up to the Capitol Building and then over to the National Archives, where we saw the original Declaration of Independence, The Bill of Rights and the Constitution of America among other artifacts from American History. We headed to Georgetown that night for dinner and a drink.

Day 2 in Washington was a miserable day but we headed out none-the-less towards the Lincoln Memorial, the Washington Monument and to the White House. No sightings of George Bush to report, he was probably all warm and rugged up inside, while Mike and I partially froze from our sopping wet clothing due to lots of rain and absence of umbrella. After grabbing a bite to eat downtown, we headed back to the hotel to get our stuff and made our way to the airport for our final destination, Las Vegas. My next and final update will come from there in a couple of days.

Dave

Bonjour

Mike and I find ourselves in Paris for three days. This is officially the turn point of our holiday in that this is as far east as we go, after this, we start our series of travels west until we come home.

Upon finding our hotel, we were pleasantly surprised to get upgraded to a suite in our le meridien hotel, despite paying with my hotel points. Our room had two bathrooms and a separate lounge. Very cool, particularly in a 4 star hotel :-)

Day 1 saw us waste no time and head to the Eiffel Tower, where we had a nice clear day with blue skies to climb it with. We took all 668 stairs to the 2nd level before taking an elevator to the top. We took in the views of Paris with me pointing out a few places we were going to visit.

Next we headed to the Arc du Triomphe, after stopping at a street side vendor for a yummy crepe. We walked around the Arc and then headed down the Champs Elysee. We detoured at the grand and petite palaces before heading over pont alexander 3 which is a rather speccy looking bridge. Next stop was hotel des invalides which is essentially a museum dedicated to war time historia.
That evening we headed to the area of Monmatre to visit the basilique de sacre coeur, have some dinner and then head to a show. The show in question is the one and only Moulin Rouge. Its my 2nd time to see it and I still really enjoy it; it's such a spectacle, bright colours, everything happening at once and just fantastic energy.

Day 2 saw us head to Notre Dame cathedral, a walk along the Seine river through the Louvre district. After lunch in a typical french cafe, we headed to the Louvre itself where we spent the next 3 or so hours walking around. Mona Lisa and Venus De Milo featured during our visit to the Louvre. At night, we again visited the Eiffel Tower to see it lit up and sparkling.
Our final day in paris was pretty relaxing with a little shopping around the Montparnasse area where we were staying before flying back to new york via london. We lose six hours flying back west.

Au revoir for now,
Dave

Hi
Our next stop was london where we arrived after an overnight flight from new york. We found our hotel, dropped off our bags and headed out. Our hotel was a 10 min walk to buckingham palace which was our first stop.

Unfortunately, the changing of the guard was not taking place today so we took some happy snaps and headed off down the road to westminster abbey. At this time, we also had a look at the houses of parliament and saw big ben.
We next crossed the thames and bought tickets for the london eye, which for those that don't know is a big ferris wheel. It moves very slowly and gives a great view over london. I think mike was pretty amazed at the size of the place. After this, it was now late enough for us to check in so we hopped on the tube and headed back to the hotel.

After a couple hour power nap, we headed out to Picadilly where we met our friend Mel for dinner and a walk around the soho area. We retired early to ensure a big day 2.

Day 2 saw us head to the tower of london and tower bridge to see the crown jewels. We then headed to st paul's cathedral and then down the stand and fleet street onto Trafalgar square. That night, we headed to covent gardens with another friend of mine, Ali, for dinner before catching up with Mel again and doing some bar hopping.

Our third day saw us check out and do some further exploring. We headed to Harrods and the knightsbridge area and for a walk through Hyde Park. Late afternoon we headed to King Cross/St Pancras Station for our Eurostar trip to Paris. As it was now dark, we didn't get to see much but it was a cool way to travel. Upon arriving in paris, we sort of blindly headed to where our hotel was supposed to be via underground and eventually found it.

Update from Paris next, stay tuned.
Dave

Happy New Year everyone!

Mike and I have just spent three days in New York, taking in NY celebrations.

Day 1 we headed through Times Square and down to the Empire State Building. It took an hour of queuing outside the building just to get in and a further hour to get up to the 86th floor where the outdoor observation deck is. It was freezing cold up there and after a few photos, we were ready to come down again. Great view though. Next we headed to Madison Square Gardens for a quick look, detouring via Macy's.

We then me up with my friends, Brody and Cathy for an early dinner (4:30pm) before joining the masses in Times Square at 5:30pm. At this stage, we were already in the 7th block of people back from the actual Times Square intersection which is on Broadway/7th and 42nd Street. We were herded into a holding cell on Broadway between 48th and 49th streets. Apparently the front rowers down on 42nd were queuing since 10am for their place. That's 14 hours waiting!!

Let me tell you all this. New Years in Times Square, surrounded by a million people is unreal BUT the 6.5 hour wait that we had standing around, unable to get food, drink or go to the toilet sucked big time. It was a whole 1 degree and we were all freezing cold. It was almost torture. Still, when the famous ball started dropping, the crowd cheering and the clock striking 12, all of that was temporarily forgotten. Very glad that I've now done that. If you ever do it, rug up, and I mean, seriously, thermals, shirt, jumper, jacket, scarf, beanie and gloves. Nothing less.

Day 2 was new years day and Mike and I headed out relatively early, despite the dreadful looking day. This time we took the subway down to the Stanton Island ferry. We decided against the ferry that took us to the Statue of Liberty as you can only go as high as her pedestal and in my opinion, wasn't worth the $12 + tax asking price each. The Stanton Island ferry, by comparison is free and takes you right past Liberty Island where you can get decent photos of the Statue of Liberty anyway.

When we got back to Manhattan, we took the subway into the financial district where we visited Wall Street and the New York Stock Exchange. Given in was a public holiday, nothing was open but never mind. We also wandered over to Ground Zero, which is an amazing hole and a very shocking reality having viewed the 9/11 tragedy on TV. During our visit, I also found the Deloitte offices in the World Financial Centre, which is over the road from the World Trade Centre site. Construction of the new Freedom Tower is now underway.

We headed back to Times Square for a late lunch before heading to Central Park for a bit of a walk around there. At night, we met up with Brody and Cathy again and headed for dinner at Planet Hollywood and then on to a comedy club on 23rd. The comedy club was excellent, very funny. We visited a few more bars before calling it a night and saying our goodbyes.

Our final day in NYC and Mike and I slept in, then checked out. We headed over to the Rockefeller Centre, Sachs 5th Avenue, Hershey's Chocolates, the M&M store and several touristy stores in a last minute shopping/touring spree. Mid afternoon, we hailed a cab and left for the airport, where we are currently, awaiting our overnight flight to London. Today was bitterly cold, about 30 degrees Fahrenheit so about -1 celsius. We'll see what London brings weather wise, although I'm not hopeful on significant improvement.

Righteo, time for us to head off on our next leg. Hope you all had a great new year.

Dave